GOING TO THE FRONT.
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And yet when I read Governor John A. Andrew ’s instructions to havethe hero martyrs “preserved in ice and tenderly sent forward,” somehow,though I felt the pathos of it, I could not reconcile myself to the ice.Ice in connection with patriotism did not give me agreeable impressionsof war, and when I came to think of it, the stoning of the heroic “ Sixth ”didn’t suit me; it detracted from my desire to die asoldier’s death.
I lay awake all night thinking the matter over, withthe “ ice ” and “ brick-bats ” before my mind. How-ever, the fever culminated that night, and I resolvedto enlist.
“ Cold chills ” ran up and down my back as I got out ofbed after the sleepless night, and shaved, preparatory toother desperate deeds of valor. I was twenty years ofage, and when anything unusual was to be done, likefighting or courting, I shaved.
With a nervous tremor convulsing my system, andmy heart thumping like muffled drum-beats, I stoodbefore the door of the recruiting-office, and, before turn-ing the knob to enter, read and re-read the advertisementfor recruits posted thereon, until I knew all its pecu-liarities. The promised chances for “ travel and promo-
not my province to volunteer such advice. Once beforein my life 1 bad taken part in opposing a formidableTiot, and liad learned by experience that the safest andmost humane manner of quelling a mob is to meet it atthe beginning with armed resistance. The column con-tinued its march. There was neither concert of actionnor organization among the rioters. They were armedonly with such stones or missiles as they could pick up,and a few pistols. My presence for a short time hadsome effect, but very soon the attack was renewed withgreater violence. The mob grew bolder. Stones flewthick and fast. Rioters rushed at the soldiers and at-tempted to snatch their muskets, and at least on twooccasions succeeded. With one of these muskets a sol-dier was killed. Men fell on both sides. A young law-yer, then and now known as a quiet citizen, seized aflag of one of the companies and nearly tore it from itsstaff. He was shot through the thigh, and was carriedhome apparently a dying man, but he survived to enterthe army of the Confederacy,where he rose to the Tank ofcaptain, and he afterward returned to Baltimore , wherehe still lives. The soldiers fired at will. There was nofiring by platoons, and I heard no order given to fire.I remember that at the corner of South street severalcitizens standing in a group fell, either killed orwounded. It was impossible for the troops to discrimi-nate between the rioters and the by-standers, but thelatter seemed to suffer most. . . . Marshal Kane,with about fifty policemen (as I then supposed, but Ihave since ascertained that, in fact, there were not somany), came at a run from the direction of the Camdenstreet station, and throwing themselves in the rear ofthe troops, they formed a line in front of the mob, andwith drawn revolvers kept it back. This was betweenLight and Charles streets. Marshal Kane’s voiceshouted, 4 Keep back, men, or I shoot 1 * This movement,which I saw myself, was gallantly executed, and wasperfectly successful. The mob recoiled like water froma rock. One of the leading rioters, then a young man,now a peaceful merchant, tried, as he has himself toldme, to pass the line, but the marshal seized him, and
vowed he would shoot if the attempt was made. Thisnearly ended the fight, and the column passed on underthe protection of the police, without serious molesta-tion, to Camden station.”
Sumner H. Needham, of Lawrence, Addison O.Whitney and Luther C. Ladd, of Lowell , andCharles A. Taylor were the killed, and thirty-sixof their comrades were -wounded. Twelve citi-zens were killed, and an unknown number werewounded. Col. Jones continues :
“As the men went into the cars I caused the blinds tothe cars to be closed, and took every precaution to pre-vent any shadow of offense to the people of Baltimore ;but still the stones flew thick and fast into the train,and it was with the utmost difficulty that I could pre-vent the troops from leaving the cars and revengingthe death of their comrades. . . . On reachingWashington we were quartered at the Capitol, in theSeuate Chamber.”
This regiment, the Gth Massachusetts, were thefirst armed troops to reach Washington in re-sponse to the call of the President.
The 27th Pennsylvania Regiment (unarmed)arrived at Baltimore by the same train as theMassachusetts troops. It was attacked by a moband obliged to remain at the President streetstation, from -which point it "was sent back thesame day in the direction of Philadelphia . Thesame night, by order of the Board of Police Com-missioners, with the concurrence of GovernorHicks and Mayor Brown, the railways from thenorth were obstructed, so that the 8th Massa-chusetts, with General B. F. Butler , and the 7thNew York were compelled to go to Annapolis bywater and march thence to Washington. —Editors.